Monday, 14 June 2010

When Evening Herald journalist Aoife Anderson was asked to review Ryanair's new softsided carry-on bag, produced by Samsonite and specially designed to comply with the airline's strict weight and size limits, she probably thought nothing of it.

Anderson's subsequent review in the Irish newspaper was all but a paragon of fairness, praising the bag as "the perfect accessory" for minimalist travellers and saying its €79 (£66) price-tag "could be worth every cent". Her write-up was a million miles off being an attack on the product, although she did question its size, adding: "You'll need to be a ruthless packer ... it won't fit more than a toothbrush, one change of clothes and a towel."

Sadly for Anderson that flirtation with criticism was deemed a step too far by Ryanair, whose response was to humiliate the journalist publicly before effectively blackmailing her into a retraction...